Meat

I’ve been experimenting in the test kitchen lately and coming up with some new recipes. Today I’m sharing my newest recipe for the #MizkanLatino cooking challenge, arrachera borracha con rajas de pimiento, or drunken skirt steak with grilled bell pepper strips. “Sabroso Grilling” was the theme for this challenge and the challenge ingredient was to use one of Mizkan’s World Harbors marinades, so I chose the Mexican-style fajita marinade….

Who doesn’t love to grill? With the 4th of July coming up, I know that we’re going to be out on the patio all weekend to enjoy the sunshine while sipping on some limonada with friends, grilling up some cebollitas and this tangy new recipe I came up with for the #MizkanLatino cooking challenge.

José, Mr. Picky-Picky when it comes to me experimenting with new ingredients, said this dish both smelled and tasted fantastic! With his stamp of approval, you know it has to be good. A note about the use of jalapeños in this recipe: you can absolutely leave the seeds and veins in the jalapeño if you want to give your chimichurri a little kick. I removed them in the video so that the chimichurri wouldn’t be spicy, but would still have all the flavor of a jalapeño so that I could serve it to guests who were a little apprehensive about eating spicy food.

I used flank steak here (also known as falda de res) but you can substitute with another cut such as skirt steak (arrachera) if you like.

Milanesas are a favorite in our house in part because they’re so easy to make. They’re great with beef, pork or chicken cutlets and the rest of the recipe never changes! Whenever I’m in a rut and not sure what to make for dinner and am short on time, this is usually my go-to recipe. The best part is that you can prepare the meat and dredge it the day before and just refrigerate overnight so all you have to do is cook them. Just be sure to separate each cutlet so they don’t get stuck together and store in an airtight container.

Served with lime wedges and a little salsa to garnish, our favorite way to eat milanesas is of course, as a taco. José also likes milanesas de puerco served with papas fritas. I like milanesas de pollo with rajas de chile poblano y cebolla. Really, there are lots of ways you can serve them, so be creative.

I typically use a little oil as possible – not in an attempt to be healthier because fried foods just aren’t healthy – but to keep the breaded cutlets as light as possible. If you use too much oil, it’s possible for them to get heavy and greasy. With less oil they stay lighter and, dare I say, a little less unhealthy because they’re not soaked in grease….

Cochinita pibil is a traditional dish from the state of Yucatán that’s cooked in an oven made inside a hole in the ground (called a pib). But did you know you can make a really good version of this dish in a slow-cooker?

When I found out that January was National Slow-Cooking Month, I knew exactly what recipe I was going to adapt for Crock-Pot cooking. I’ve always wanted to test my theory that cochinita pibil can be done in a slow-cooker, so the fact that it was a nationally recognized month-long culinary holiday-of-sorts was the perfect chance to take on the challenge.

Yes, we’ve posted a recipe here before for cochinita, but let me tell you why this one is different. We’re using a different cut of meat (boneless country-style pork ribs), an easy spice mix made from scratch (no achiote paste in brick-form here), and as with most slow-cooker recipes, you can set it and forget it, making it relatively hassle-free compared to the traditional method of making cochinita pibil.

And finally, we’re not going to serve our cochinita pibil as a taco like you might expect–we’re going to serve them on tostadas.

This dish can also be served as panuchos by putting the refried black beans inside little tortillas, frying before adding the meat, salsa and any garnishes on top, but trust me when I say store-bought tostadas are going to save you a lot of time. Plus, this recipe is a bit healthier because we’re leaving the frying out. If you can’t find small tostadas or picaditas at your grocery store, you can make your own by either heating corn tortillas in the oven until they’re dry and crispy, or you can get the same result by cooking them longer on your comal.

But before we move on to the recipe, let’s talk a little about what a slow-cooker (or Crock-Pot) actually is so there’s no confusion because I often get asked if a slow cooker is the same as a pressure cooker. (The answer is no. In fact, they’re opposites.) A slow-cooker is a counter-top electric device that you plug in and usually has a removable glazed ceramic or porcelain pot, surrounded by a heat-conducting housing. They typically have two cooking settings: low or high, and a keep warm setting. Some of the more expensive slow-cookers have more options for controlling the heat as well as a timer with an automatic-shut off.

The point of a slow cooker is to cook things with steady low, moist heat which makes it ideal for soups, stews and cooking meats that you want to be fork-tender, but without all the fuss of watching it constantly. The lid of the slow cooker typically has a small vent in order to let some of the steam escape and can be removed during the cooking process to stir the ingredients if needed.

Use your Crock-Pot or slow-cooker for a no-fuss, easy-cleanup variation of a classic Yucatan favorite, cochinita pibil. Tip: Serve on mini tostadas for a perfect party-treat!

Ingredients

Meat and marinade:

1 1/2 pounds country-style boneless pork ribs

1 cup fresh lime juice (about 10 medium-large limes)

3/4 cup fresh orange juice

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 of a large red onion, cut into 1/4 inch slices

Spices:

3 tablespoons white vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 1/2 teaspoon ground achiote

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon whole Mexican oregano

Salsa:

1/2 of a large red onion, sliced into small strips

juice of 1 large orange

juice of 2 large limes

1 roasted habanero chile, finely chopped

For tostadas:

1 package of small tostadas or picaditas

1 cup refried black beans

Instructions

THE NIGHT BEFORE: MARINATING THE MEAT - Start by squeezing the fresh lime juice and orange juice. Once you have the juice, put it in a medium to large glass bowl and add the crushed garlic. It's important to use glass rather than metal/stainless steel or plastic because glass is non-reactive and non-corrosive.

Combine all the dry spices and mix well; then add vinegar and olive oil. Stir to incorporate the liquids and add to the glass bowl with the citrus juices and garlic. Stir well and add the pork to the bowl, making sure it’s completely covered by the juice. Cover and allow it to marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Making the salsa: Slice 1/2 of a large red onion into small strips and mix it with the juice of 1 orange and 2 limes. Roast one habanero on your comal or in a skillet, remove the stem (and seeds if you want to reduce some of the heat), and finely chop. Add the habanero to the salsa. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator overnight.

THE DAY OF: Slice the remaining half onion into quarter-inch thick slices and place them on the bottom of the crock-pot. Remove the meat and marinade from the refrigerator and place the meat over the onions. Pour all the juice over the meat.

Place the lid on the crock-pot and cook on high for 5 hours (or on low for 8-9 hours). You should NOT rush and cook this recipe on high heat for half the time - it doesn't work that way! You'll end up with tough meat.

You’ll know it’s finished cooking when you remove a piece of meat from the crock-pot and can shred it with a fork without much effort. Shred all the pork. Place the meat in a bowl and add a little juice from the Crock-Pot to keep the meat moist.

Heat the tostadas in the oven at 200º F for a few minutes. Spread warm refried black beans on the tostadas. Add the shredded pork on top of the beans and spoon some of the habanero salsa and onions on top of the pork.

Last month at my cooking show at the Kenmore Live Studio where I made chilaquiles, I talked about the versatility of salsa verde. I can think of about a dozen uses for this sauce just off the top of my head, so when I make it, I usually make extra so that I can get a few different meals out of it. One of my favorite things to make with salsa verde is enchiladas.

This recipe is so easy to make; great whether you need to feed just a few or a whole family. A few weeks ago, I made these enchiladas for my suegro and he ate three helpings! I laughed and asked him whether they were that good or if he was very hungry and as he was about to take another bite, he said “both!” These are also a favorite of José’s.

If you want to make these vegetarian, you can substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth in the salsa and fill them with cheese instead of chicken.

RECETA:

ENCHILADAS VERDES

FOR SALSA VERDE

A little over 1 pound of small tomatillos, husked & thoroughly washed

3-5 serrano chiles (depending how spicy you like it), stems cut off and roughly chopped

1-2 cloves of garlic

1-2 slices of white onion

A pinch or two of salt to taste

1-1 ¼ cup chicken broth or water

FOR THE ENCHILADAS

3 cups shredded chicken (2 chicken breasts and some dark meat)

6-7 oz (about ¾ cup) of shredded Chihuahua cheese

½ cup crema Mexicana

A dozen corn tortillas

Some canola oil for frying the tortillas

To make the salsa:

First, husk and wash the tomatillos. Rinse them well in cool water.

Fill a pot with water (large enough to fit all the tomatillos) and bring to a boil. Put the tomatillos in and cook in the boiling water until the tomatillo flesh begins to get transparent. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the tomatillos to a blender. Add the onion, garlic and salt. Cut the stems off the serrano chiles and cut each chile into a few pieces so they’re easily chopped in the blender.

Start by adding 2 chiles to the blender with about ¾ of a cup of water or chicken broth and blend on high until smooth and the chiles and tomatillos are completely incorporated. Taste the salsa to see if it’s too hot; if it needs more chile, add them one at a time, blending & tasting the result until you are happy with the level of heat from the chiles. If it seems the salsa is not quite liquid enough, add another ¼ cup of water or chicken broth. The salsa will reduce slightly when cooked.

Pour blender contents into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the salsa boils, occasionally stirring. Remove from heat.

You can either make a bone-in chicken breast from scratch or use a store-bought rotisserie chicken if you’re short on time. For bone-in chicken breast and chicken stock, you can just gently boil the chicken on the stove with a pinch or two of salt, a slice of onion and a small spring of cilantro or a few epazote leaves until the meat is cooked through. If you use a rotisserie chicken, buy one that’s low-sodium or barely seasoned. You can pour the juices from the container into a saucepan with a few cups of water and a chicken leg or two.

To make the enchiladas:

Preheat the oven to 350º F (177º C).

Heat a little bit of oil in a frying pan (just enough to coat the bottom of the pan) and lightly fry both sides of the tortilla. Each side will dome up when it’s ready to be turned. Drain on paper towels. Put a bit of the shredded chicken in the center of each tortilla and add a generous pinch of the shredded Chihuahua cheese. Roll them up and place seam-side down in a baking dish.

Spread the crema liberally over the top of the enchiladas and then ladle some salsa over them. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and heat in the oven at 350º for 8-10 minutes to heat through. Then move to the top rack and broil on low until the cheese is completely melted and bubbly, with some brown spots. Remove from the oven. Using a spatula, transfer enchiladas to plates and finish with some extra salsa on top.

During my last visit to Mexico, one rainy afternoon I spent several hours leafing through my suegra’s cookbooks looking for some new tricks and some family recipes.

After writing several recipes down, I decided to just use my phone to take a photo of each recipe card so that I could have all the recipes without all the work of writing them down. Plus, they’d be easy to access in the kitchen and as an added bonus, they’re in the original handwriting of whichever relative gave my suegra the recipe. Some of them were even typed on a typewriter!

A month or two ago, José discovered my little secret while browsing the photos on my phone and he was like a little kid opening presents on Christmas. Now he’s always stealing my phone when he’s hungry! Last week he was scrolling through the recipes looking for something different that I hadn’t yet attempted to make and he came across this recipe for filete de res a la Chiapaneca, or Chiapas-style steak. It’s another recipe of Tía Carola’s and it came with minimal instructions as usual. I had to modify the recipe slightly because on the first taste test of the salsa, José said it didn’t taste quite right. But this version I’m sharing here is super sabroso and sure to delight the whole family….

Primary Sidebar

SEARCH

Search this website

¡Bienvenidos!

Hi, I'm Maura Hernández. Welcome to my kitchen! I'm an award-winning food and travel blogger, recipe developer, and journalist sharing my passion for all things Mexico. Married to a Chilango, I've traveled Mexico extensively for the last decade. On The Other Side of The Tortilla, you'll find a mix of traditional and modern Mexican cooking, along with my advice on where to eat, stay and play on your visit to Mexico! READ MORE ABOUT ME...

Mexican books + cookbooks I love

The books linked here are Amazon affiliate links, which means I earn a little commission for each sale, at no extra cost to you.